Shoes

Shoes...I love them. I could spent LOTS of money on them, well let me correct that. I cannot stand to pay more than $25 on a pair of shoes, but if I had lots of money, I would own thousands of pairs of shoes. Especially high heels, I adore them.


I got a very fancy dress for our "formal" night aboard the cruise. I really didn't want a black dress, but the one I loved turned out to be black. So I thought it would be great to find some really fantastic red shoes to spice it up a bit. Yesterday, my loving husband and I (and Thomas) set out to the mall yesterday to find the perfect shoes. After 5 stores, I was starting to despair that I'd never find THE shoes that were meant for this dress. We tried one last stop and I found these...


Please forgive my lack of painted toe nails :) They are definitely NOT something I would have chosen for any other occasion, but I cannot wait to see how they look with my dress. The best part? They were on clearance from $75 to $15!!! Matt was so happy about that part that he let me get ANOTHER pair! I was one happy lady!

Matt and I were "pre packing" yesterday which really means we were trying to figure out exactly how many things we could take without going over the 50 pound bag rule. And of course, I had to choose shoes. How can I narrow it down? If it were up to me, I'd wear at least two pairs of shoes a day, every day we are on the cruise! There were some tense moments as I really had to get serious and choose only three pairs...3!!!! *sniff sniff* But I managed to get down to three...unless we have a smidgen of room and then I am totally stuffing two more pairs in!

FOR TODAY February 24th…

Outside My Window… It is sunny, but breezy. It's supposed to hit 40 tomorrow..WOO HOO!

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I am thinking… that I should be doing something productive...but this is more fun :)

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I am thankful for… coffee days, I look forward to them so much

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From the kitchen… NADA, we are going out for Chinese tonight!

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I am wearing… my gray yoga pants, a comfy blue shirt...

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I am creating… lists. Lists, lists, and wait, more lists :) Things to pack, things to get done before we go, lists for my brother and sister-in-law regarding the kids....

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I am going… to start tanning next week......never done it before...

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I am reading… nothing right now, all my books are packed and waiting to be read poolside.

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I am hoping… that the next two and a half weeks go by quickly!

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I am hearing… NOTHING! Sydney is at school and Thomas is napping..it's GLORIOUSLY quiet!

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Around the house… I'm starting to get things organized for when we are away, cleaning room by room.

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One of my favorite things… is my quiet afternoons, most of the time I get lots done. But then there is the occasional day where I do NOTHING...it's awesome!

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A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Tomorrow is Matt's day off so we are "practice" packing to see how much we can fit into one suitcase while keeping it under 50 pounds :) Saturday we are moving my brother and his wife into a new apartment, praying it doesn't snow!

Here is picture thought I am sharing…

I didn't notice until I put this picture on here that, not only is this a picture of Sydney, but she had written her name ON THE WALL, IN PEN! You can see it just to the left of her face...stinker.

I have been a lazy blogger lately. Just sort of seems like everyone is hitting that wall of BLAH. Time moves on though...

Matt, Molli and Emma attended the Snow Fairy Ball which is the local Daddy/Daughter dance. This was Emma's first year as she had to stay home last year due to this event. She was on her best behavior this year, because she knew what would happen. A HUGE thanks to my girlfriend Mindy who discovered the girl's dresses at Meijer for a mere $1.50 a piece! We had so much getting them all dolled up and ready. Here's a peek...







They really had blast, Emma's response when asked about the night was priceless...she let out a big sigh, closed her eyes and said, "It was magical." LOL, she cracks me up!


There are less than 20 days till the cruise and to say I am weary of waiting would be an understatement. It feels farther away now than it did in December! But I know it will be here and gone before I know it. We are taking the laptop so I will try and blog while away. But for now, I'll just keep waiting....

Another round of snow this past weekend has me wondering if spring will EVER come. Of course, I know it will...it would just be nice if it was SOON!

Jonah had his first spring Boychoir concert yesterday, I'll get some pics of that up soon.
Ok, well off to find something productive to do :)

Yesterday got away from me...I was so caught up in the day. My oldest hit double digits yesterday. Holy cow. How did this happen? How did I not see this coming? He is my beautiful boy....always was, always will be. I'll never forget that moment ten years ago when the nurse handed me my first child....words can never describe the love, worry, fear, and joy that washed over me at that moment. So here's to another year with my ever changing boy...

I knew the day was coming. I knew the day would arrive and I'd have to part with another part of my youngest child's "babyhood". I wish I could report that he was potty trained :) Instead we were gifted with this last week.....


A toddler bed...and not just any toddler bed, but a DIEGO toddler bed. My plan was to put it away until after Matt and I returned from our vacation that I talk obsessively about in which we are gone for a week aboard a huge boat without our children cruise, so that my brother and sister-in-law wouldn't be chasing him back into bed at any and all hours of the day and night. But, once he got a glimpse of it, we were done for. I tearfully took down his crib....many tears...not knowing if there'll ever be another Kurtz baby in the crib that all of my other babies have slept in. The transition has gone beautifully...he is curious at nap time and has to be walked back a few times, but at night he hasn't tried to get out of bed even ONCE! So all in all, it's been fun. And how can you deny the happiness on this face???

Creativity at it's best..or my best anyway

I am not creative. Most of you know this about me. I like buy-able creations or things that are so simple my kids can do it on their own :) It's often referred to as lazy...but I'll call it not creative. So it's no surprise that as valentine's season approached, I joined the throngs of mothers buying pre-packaged valentines for their kids. This year, though, Jonah is in 4th grade and he turned up his nose at all of the Transformer and Spiderman valentines. So I had to be *gulp* creative.

I get the Family Fun magazine which I adore...lots of ideas for us "non creative" types. When I saw the picture of this valentine they had made I knew we had to do it. So, I bought all the supplies and we got busy. 5 hours later, here's what we had.....








ipod valentines...that are wrapped boxes of the conversation hearts with little Reese's peanut butter cups as the headphones; blue for the boys and pink for the girls. Jonah wrote on the back as you can see...so what has this taught me?

Good idea + 5 hours of cutting and gluing and taping and writing and tying + grumbling loudly at how ridiculously involved these were (out of earshot of him of course!) = One very happy fourth grader who will have the coolest valentines in his class!

Hey guess what??? I'm going on a cruise. I just wanted to remind you in case you had forgotten. But now it is truly official. This past Friday I walked into Ermisch Travel and paid for our trip in full. I AM GOING ON A CRUISE! There's no backing out now, as if I would!!! And the best part, we were upgraded. When the travel agent mentioned it, I thought..wow, maybe an oceanivew...that'd be great! But instead we get this............


IT'S A BALCONY STATEROOM!!! Can you believe it??? I still cannot. Now my husband and I can sit on our balcony and watch the sunrise, or set depending on which way we are headed. I am beyond excited. Ok, I promise to stop talking about the cruise now. Well, at least for a few minutes : )

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching. And how are we spending it you might ask? Hosting 3 boys for a sleepover to celebrate Jonah's birthday. Doesn't that sound romantic?? Actually, it will be very fun and I'm very excited for Jonah. I still have a week to brace myself for having a 10 year old in the house!

Meanwhile, in other news...wait, I don't have any other news. Except, did I mention that I'm going on a cruise? :)

A girlfriend of mine sent me this and I laughed so hard that I had to post it for you all to see...



1.YOUR REAL NAME
Mandi Kurtz

2.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME:(mother and fathers middle names)
Diane Francis

3.NASCAR NAME:(first name of your mother's dad, father's dad)
Thomas Gerald

4.STAR WARS NAME:(the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)
Manku

5.DETECTIVE NAME:(favorite color, favorite animal)
Purple Manatee

6.SOAP OPERA NAME:(middle name, town where you were born)
Leigh Rochester

7.SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning)
The Red Pepsi LOL

8.FLY NAME:(first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name)
Matz

9.STREET NAME:(fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie)
Chocolate chocolate chip

10.ROCK STAR NAME:(current pets name, current street name)
Chunky Roosevelt HA HA HA

11. PORN NAME: (1st pet, street you grew up on)
Cheers Liberty

12.YOUR GANGSTA NAME:(first 3 letters of real name plus izzle)
Amaizzle

13.YOUR IRAQI.. NAME:(2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, first two letters of your middle name, last two letters of your first name then last three letters of your last name)
Arledirtz LOL

14.YOUR GOTH NAME:(black, and the name of one of your pets)
Black Bo

15. STRIPPER NAME: (name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav candy)
Beautiful Butterfinger

Oh my WORD! I almost peed myself...LOL

It has been a very busy few day around the Kurtz home. My grandma moved into my parent's house. There's a very good reason that people should not move in the winter! It was CRAZY! Friday night we started by bringing some of her furniture here. Thanks to my grandma, we got this....



a gorgeous dining room set with a matching hutch. It's beautiful!!

We also got a new computer desk and coffee table. But boy did we have some scary moments....

Our driveway is a fairly steep slope. And it's been quite a winter here. So our driveway is tricky even for our van to get up. Now try and get a 17 ft. truck up it. NOT! I had to sit in the cab of the truck with my foot on the brake while the guys unloaded the furniture! And since we could only get the truck half way up, the guys were forced to carry the heavy furniture through 4 foot piles of snow! What craziness!

Then on Saturday we emptied my grandma's house and took it all down to my parent's house. It was a very full day, both emotionally and physically. My grandma has never moved without my grandpa making all the decisions and she's never moved into a house that wasn't hers. So there were some tears and some quiet moments as we all sensed Grandpa's absence. However it's over and we are DONE moving for a while!

Oh and 6 weeks from today, Matt and I will be on board our cruise ship and headed into the clear blue waters of the Caribbean......CAN'T WAIT!!!!